Craig Swan, the chief executive of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, has expanded on local plans for the world’s first fully onchain economy, “a move he is certain will create amazing new opportunities for the country's citizens”, CoinDesk has reported.

Mr Swan told the publication that moving the economy on to blockchain requires changing the legal definition of property, as authorities pursue other efforts such as rewriting banking rules.

During an interview in London, Mr Swan said: “When you look at contract law, and if you look at securities, in some cases, it's not clear whether or not a smart contract satisfies a legal transfer of ownership.

“We have to look at the legislation to make sure that it's aligned. I think there are a few tweaks the island needs to make around shares — the way legislation records a share register needs to be clear that it can exist in a digital form.”

He told the publication that the BMA recently concluded a pilot programme focused on embedding compliance directly inside smart contracts.

It proved that protocols could automatically freeze a transaction if underlying collateral reserves fell below a specific threshold, or block and exchange entirely if an address violated real-time anti-money laundering or sanctions screening.

CoinDesk reported “the BMA is already looking beyond human traders to digital liquidity generated by automated machines”.

According to the publication, Mr Swan said the BMA plans to roll out “an AI payments hub to research and supervise transactional flows initiated entirely by autonomous software”.

Mr Swan was quoted: “Smaller jurisdictions with the resources will be able to follow us. Larger jurisdictions would have to take a different train. But to attract companies that are serious, it’s best not to race to the bottom.”

Authorities believe that under the Digital Asset Business Act, Bermuda can achieve “the same global footprint for tokenised real-world assets and decentralised finance” as it has for the reinsurance industry.

CoinDesk said for larger G20 nations, scaling such an ambitious ledger remains a multiyear regulatory bottleneck. For Bermuda, its small population is its primary geopolitical advantage.